What is the online classroom?

Online classes are conducted over the internet. They generally
use the web to allow communication between teacher and students, and amongst
students. Depending on circumstances, classes can be partially or fully online.
Some classes lend themselves to this format more than others, and the capabilities
of technology continue to change that line.

Intro to iLearn and online classes

At Gavilan College, the majority of our online classes
are conducted at the website . This website runs
software called Moodle . Teachers also use their individual
web sites, (located on the faculty web server, ) to
provide their own material. Other websites and software are used as
well, such as PowerPoint presentations, Microsoft Word, YouTube.com
and other video sharing sites, and more.

An online class has the same requirements and academic
rigor as its corresponding face to face class. The units earned are
the same as well.

It isn't currently possible to complete an entire Associate's
Degree online. Some classes, such as Small Group Communications, or
Physical Ed, are only feasible in person. However there is an ever-growning
range of classes online. Faculty are encouraged to design or transition
their own classes to the online medium.

What is possible?

Lots of types of communication are now possible online,
but some important differences from face to face classes exist.

Group discussions take place on "forums" or a bulletin
board. Conversations occur here, but they don't take place in "real
time". That is, contributions to the conversation might be spread out
over hours or days.

"Real time" conversations (generally known as "chat")
also take place. The limitations of typing mean that chatting is not
as appropriate online as it is face to face.

Voice conversations are beginning to be a possiblity,
but remain experimental. Conference calling type interaction is now
commonly done on the internet, but still requires more computer power,
more internet bandwidth, and more computer expertese than we generally
expect from the student population.

Many types of assignments are done in online classes.
Essays, question/answer sheets, fill in the blanks, and other types
of traditional schoolwork, along with due dates and grades, are commonly
conducted in online classes. Written assignments are the easiest to
set up, but some drawing assignments (for example, weather diagrams
for the meterology course) are turned in to the teacher using fax machines
or plain old mail.

Quizzes, exams, and tests are also conducted in online
classes. A variety of formats are available, such as multiple choice
questions, fill-in-the-blank, essay questions, matching, and others.

What isn't possible?

First things first: Absolute accountability on high-stakes
testing isn't available online, with any software. This is a limitation
of the medium, not of our software. Our software has a variety of ways
to make cheating harder, but please recognize that it simply isn't
possible to verify a student's identity 100% over the internet. Your
teaching strategy should recognize this limitation and account for
it.

Some ways to reduce this limitation might be to:

Use more journal or reflective essay prompts than
multiple choice quizzes.

Do more-frequent, lower-stakes quizzes

Make the midterm or final exam(s) on-site.

What else is different? The online classes seem to take
place all day long, on all days of the week, rather than sticking to
a regular schedule. As a teacher, you will impose the structure of
deadlines and other dates, but you'll also find that classroom activity
is more difuse than classes that meet weekly. Conversations spread
out over hours or days, sometimes moving quickly, and other times seemingly
stalled. The teacher's art of stimulating lively discussion and debate
in class is still critical, but the methods are very different from
a face to face class. Be preapared to start learning these new skills.

How to get an iLearn account and shell

So you want to experiement with an online class? You'd
like to begin setting up your existing face to face class with an online
component? Great!

The first thing to do is get yourself a "shell" for
the class. A shell is the virtual classroom, for any given course.
You can request a new shell (as many as you'd like) from the Distance
Education Program. The quickest way to do it is to fill out this
form.
You can also send email to disted@gavilan.edu with
any questions or special requests..

Once you have your shell, you can log in to ilearn.gavilan.edu
and begin building your course(s). You will begin to learn how to post
web pages, discussion forums, assignments, quzzes, lectures, and other
forms of online interaction.

Online vs. hybrid vs. web enhanced classes

In order to be clear about what is required of our students,
we settled on 3 forms of "online-ness" of classes here at Gavilan.

Online Class

An online class is conducted completely online.
Meetings may be offered, but they may not be required to pass
the class. It should be possible for a student to attend an
online class from anywhere on the planet.

Hybrid Class

This is a mixed online / face to face class.
Both components are required. A student must be able to attend
the required sessions in person, as well as log on to the online
portion in order to pass the class.

Web Enhanced Class

This is primarily a face to face class, with
some material offered on the web as well. In general, the online
portion is highly recommended, but the majority of class hours
are spent in the physical classroom. It is intended that the
online portion of a web-enhanced class shouldn't exclude students
without computers: the college offers hundreds of public computers
in labs on all 3 campuses.